Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco?
Issue 2: Was the Settlement of Jamestown a Fiasco?
Yes:
Edmond Morgan builds an easy to understand case of explaining the initial failures of the Jamestown colony. He credits the failures to chaotic organization, laziness, the makeup of the population, and poor ideas for prosperity. Morgan argues that one reason for failure was a lack of organization. He states that Jamestown lacked leadership. The colonies government was made up of a council and a president. The president had virtually no authority, and the council spent most of its time arguing and not actually accomplishing any governing. Once the colony established a governor, and they went through several, other problems arose. The next problem that Morgan brings to attention is a combination of laziness and the makeup of the population. When the colonists first arrived to Jamestown they functioned as a socialist like community. The colonists farmed as a whole and everyone was given equal portions of the crop. This took away any incentive to plant and farm as much as possible. “The work a man did bore no direct relation to his reward.”(Morgan p. 31). Governor Dale then caught on to this and changed their functioning to that of a capitalist like private enterprise. He gave each man three acres or twelve if he had a family, and each man or family could keep what they grew except for a tax of two and a half barrels of corn per year. This put the colony into a surplus, at first. Then a new aspect of laziness and ignorance arose. Out of a population of roughly three hundred, roughly one hundred were gentleman. Morgan says this about gentleman on page thirty-two, “Gentleman, by definition, had no manual skill, nor could they be expected to work at ordinary labor.” In other words, the gentlemen were lazy, ignorant to the trade of labor, and thought too highly of themselves to participate in labor. This hurt the production of crops needed to survive. The third problem that Morgan argues is that the colonists
Yes:
Edmond Morgan builds an easy to understand case of explaining the initial failures of the Jamestown colony. He credits the failures to chaotic organization, laziness, the makeup of the population, and poor ideas for prosperity. Morgan argues that one reason for failure was a lack of organization. He states that Jamestown lacked leadership. The colonies government was made up of a council and a president. The president had virtually no authority, and the council spent most of its time arguing and not actually accomplishing any governing. Once the colony established a governor, and they went through several, other problems arose. The next problem that Morgan brings to attention is a combination of laziness and the makeup of the population. When the colonists first arrived to Jamestown they functioned as a socialist like community. The colonists farmed as a whole and everyone was given equal portions of the crop. This took away any incentive to plant and farm as much as possible. “The work a man did bore no direct relation to his reward.”(Morgan p. 31). Governor Dale then caught on to this and changed their functioning to that of a capitalist like private enterprise. He gave each man three acres or twelve if he had a family, and each man or family could keep what they grew except for a tax of two and a half barrels of corn per year. This put the colony into a surplus, at first. Then a new aspect of laziness and ignorance arose. Out of a population of roughly three hundred, roughly one hundred were gentleman. Morgan says this about gentleman on page thirty-two, “Gentleman, by definition, had no manual skill, nor could they be expected to work at ordinary labor.” In other words, the gentlemen were lazy, ignorant to the trade of labor, and thought too highly of themselves to participate in labor. This hurt the production of crops needed to survive. The third problem that Morgan argues is that the colonists
Citations: Within Taking Sides Morgan, Edmond. American Slavery, American Freedom. (W. W. Norton, 1975). Kupperman, Karen. The Jamestown Project. (Harvard University Press, 2007) Kidd, Thomas. The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America (Yale University Press, 2007) Butler, Jon. Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretive Fiction. Journal of American History (September 1982)